Have you guys gone and watched Nichijou/My Ordinary Life yet? I haven’t! But I recently noticed the credits for its opening song, “Hyadain no ka-ka-kata*omoi” (“Hyadain’s un-un-unrequited*love”). Maeyamada Ken’ichi, also known as Hyadain, has been one of my favorite remixers for years, and it was a big surprise to see his music featured in an anime.

From this quirky op, you can see lots of Hyadain’s musical trademarks – chiptune sensibilities, and a whole lot of backing himself up with falsetto. Check after the jump for more of his work, from cute and harmless Dragon Quest remixes to slightly risque love songs to Mega Man.

The app includes wallpapers, air times, character information, staff and cast credits, and links to official sites. The app is free of charge and available in the Japanese iTunes app store. (Actually, I just checked, and you can get it in the US iTunes app store if you can search for it in Japanese.)

It’s April, and the new anime season has begun. (Although, due to the continuing effects of the earthquake, several shows from the last season have not yet aired their conclusions.) Since there are so many new shows starting up this month, I decided to break up the “first looks” post into pieces. So here we go.

Boy meets girl... er, princess... er, dog?

Dog Days kicked off the season with a bang. Tsuzuki Masaki (writer), Kusakawa Keizou (director), and Seven Arcs (animation production) from the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series and movie teamed up with a first-rate voice cast for this highly-anticipated show. The opening song is done by one of Dom’s favorite singers, the character designs and art are strong, and all the pieces look to be in place. It remains to be seen if Tsuzuki and Kusakawa can tell a compelling story or if this just becomes an eye candy fluff piece.

April Fools Day is now over in Japan. It’s not really a big thing there, only really having much impact among a subculture of game, anime, and technology fans, but then again that’s what we cover here.

A few companies put in some extra effort on April Fools Day. Square Enix and A-1 Pictures put together a full (fake) trailer with animation and voice acting for a (fake) Working!! season 2 starring a whole new cast of characters from the (real) Nekogumi version of the comic.

When April 2 rolled around, they came back with a real trailer for the real season 2 of Working!!.

Bakemonogatari (English title: Ghostory), the popular light novel series by Nishioi Shin that spawned a TV anime series in 2009, is getting an anime sequel. Aniplex confirmed on the Bakemonogatari official website that the movie will be called Kizumonogatari, which is the name of the third book in the series.

Kizumonogatari is technically a prequel, since it tells the story of how Araragi Koyomi got mixed up in this whole mess to begin with. Other than its release date of 2012, no other details have yet been announced.

If you’ve been unable to sleep because you’ve been waiting for news on the next streaming episode of Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (My Little Sister Can’t Possibly Be This Cute), well, you can sleep easy tonight. On the official web page, they announced the date of the streaming and the availability of the new trailer for episode 13.

When the Kirino's away, what do the black cats do?

Episode 13, “Ore no kouhai ga konnani kusatta wake ga nai” (My junior can’t possibly be this rotten) will be released to the ether on Tuesday, March 29, at noon Japan time. That’s midnight EDT, or 9PM PDT on Monday, for those of you keeping track on this side of the ocean.

Has it been that long? Not quite, the 10th anniversary of Higurashi no Naku Koru ni (English title: When They Cry) isn’t until 2012. But Japanese anime distributor Frontier Works announced on their twitter account that they are working on a new OVA series, Higurashi no Naku Koru ni Kira.